The Securities and Exchange Commission has reduced the number of documentary requirements on companies planning to go into the financing or lending activities.
SEC chairperson Teresita Herbosa said the regulator consolidated some of the required documents and dispensed with the redundant ones.
The basic documentary requirements on applications for a certificate of authority to operate as a financing company total 23 documents, until the SEC’s company registration and monitoring department trimnmed them to 15.
Financing firns applying to operate a branch office, meanwhile, are now just required to complete eight documents from 13.
In addition, the SEC’s corporate governance and finance department, which is in charge of monitoring registered financing and lending companies, dispensed with some requirements in order to streamline monitoring and make doing business easier.
Streamlining critical processes facilitated quicker issuance of certificates applied for, Herbosa said, as she assured the public the SEC would further improve services by eliminating excessive or inflexible administrative procedures and protracted decision-making processes.
The fewer documentary requirements are expected to ease the burden on the transacting public, who will no longer be asked to bring voluminous records and documents to the SEC.
The reduced paperwork will also speed up the processing for the issuance of the certificates because of lesser documents for required for inspection or evaluation.
Meanwhile, the SEC finalized the implementing rules and regulation of Republic Act No. 10693, or the Microfinance NGOs Act
The Microfinance NGOs Act aims to help in poverty eradication by supporting and working in partnership with qualified non-government organizations in promoting financially inclusive and pro-poor financial and credit services.
The Microfinance NGOs Act covers microfinance non-government organizations, and does not cover for-profit microfinance institutions.
Under the rules, the government will form a Microfinance NGO Regulatory Council, which will serve as an accreditation body.
The council can also institute and operationalize a system of accreditation for microfinance NGOs, including sound and measurable standards of financial performance, social performance, audit and governance.
It will monitor the performance of the NGOs to ensure their compliance with the accreditation standards. It has an authority to audit the books of accounts, records and papers of microfinance NGOs and conduct ocular inspection.